Menu

Taking Action: An Advocacy How-To Guide

As ID and HIV experts, your Members of Congress need to hear from you about the role that federal programs, policies, and funding play in supporting local and state efforts to monitor, prevent and treat infectious diseases, and in conducting the research necessary to improve the U.S. and global response to infectious diseases.

Your advocacy makes a difference. Medical providers, researchers, and public health professionals are a trusted source for information. You have a unique frontline perspective to share with policymakers regarding how federal programs and policies benefit your patients, institution, community and state. IDSA and HIVMA compiled this guide to assist members in communicating with Congressional members. Please contact Lisa Cox with IDSA or Kim Miller with HIVMA, if you have questions, feedback or if we can be of any assistance.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Join IDSA’s Member Advocacy Program
Our Member Advocacy Program includes the core group of our most active members. Joining MAP gives you access to the most detailed updates and alerts on all the latest ID and HIV-developments happening in Washington and opportunities to make your voice heard on Capitol Hill. Please join by clicking here.

Researchers: Tell Your Story

One vital way to raise your voice is to help us illustrate to policy makers in concrete terms the adverse impact that proposed steep cuts to the NIH budget would have on your research. Please visit our Action Center to contribute a story.

Contact Congress

Email

IDSA/HIVMA Action Center: Send a prepared email message to your Senators and Representative urging them to take action on our IDSA and HIVMA priorities using the talking points and templates provided. Please personalize or modify the text based on your experience.

Email IDSA or HIVMA staff for staff contacts in Senate and House offices.

Call

Call the Capitol Switchboard: (202) 224-3121. Ask to be connected to one of your Senators or your Congressional Representative’s office.

If you are going to be in the Washington, DC area and would like assistance arranging to visit the offices of your Members of Congress, please contact IDSA or HIVMA staff and we will be happy to help make arrangements. We can also help you arrange a meeting with your Members of Congress in their state or district offices.

Host a Site Visit for Your Legislators

Arranging for your legislators to visit your clinic, lab, or health department is a powerful way for them to see firsthand the effectiveness and importance of federal ID/HIV funding, programs, and policies at work in their community. If you are interested in setting up such a visit, IDSA or HIVMA staff can assist with issuing the invitation via their schedulers.

Tweet

Many Congressional members and committees maintain twitter accounts. Sharing messages via twitter is also effective.

Take Action

Even though Congress is finishing work on 2018 funding, members of the House and Senate are beginning to determine 2019 funding priorities. We need your help to ensure that infectious diseases programs are given high priority as the 2019 appropriations processes move forward. IDSA and HIVMA are urging lawmakers to provide a robust federal commitment to biomedical research and public health, and specifically infectious diseases programs such as those addressing antimicrobial resistance, HIV/AIDS, hepatitis, tuberculosis, vaccine preventable illnesses, emerging infectious diseases, and the opioid epidemic. For these efforts to succeed, your voice is needed to convey the importance of these programs to your representative and senators.

Last week, IDSA member Dr. Josh Eby, IDSA staff, and members of the Cognitive Care Alliance, a coalition of specialty societies including IDSA, the American College of Rheumatology, and the American Society of Hematology, participated in meetings on Capitol Hill and at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to urge members of Congress and CMS to revalue evaluation and management codes and improve ID physician compensation. Dr. Eby shared stories of the care he delivered to patients at the University of Virginia to demonstrate the need for CMS to revalue evaluation and management codes. We urge you to join in this effort by contacting your members of Congress to ask CMS to act on this critical issue.

Federal programs are operating on a Continuing Resolution (CR), through February 8, because Congress was unable to reach a bipartisan budget agreement in January. More than three months into the fiscal year, Congress must take action so that federal programs can appropriately plan and implement their fiscal year 2018 programs. The National Institutes of Health (NIH), including the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and the Fogarty International Center, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), and the tuberculosis program at US Agency for International Development (USAID) were slated for increases in the House and Senate Appropriations Committee bills, but these victories won’t be a reality unless Congress passes a budget agreement and a final FY2018 appropriations bill with robust funding for vital ID/HIV programs.We need your help to deliver this message to your Representatives and Senators.

Please help us send a strong message to Congress from the HIV medical provider and researcher community not to retreat on the healthcare coverage gains made over the last eight years. Please call on your Members of Congress to strengthen and improve the ACA and protect the Medicaid program.
Thank you!

The Reinvigorating Antibiotic and Diagnostic Innovation (READI) Act will soon be reintroduced in the House of Representatives. The READI Act, modeled after the Orphan Drug Tax Credit, would support antibiotic and rapid diagnostic R&D. Please take 3 minutes, using this Action Center, to request that your representative cosponsor the READI Act.